Cricket: Sri Lanka to go ‘pink’ with Premier Championship

Living with the coming trends, Sri Lanka Cricket also cut its teeth with the newfangled pink ball in domestic cricket, come January. 

According to Sri Lanka Cricket Vice President K. Mathivanan, the Super-Eight Club tournament will be a four-day, ‘day’ tournament played using a Kookaburra ‘Pink’ ball. 

A pink ball, it is said, wears off more slowly than the white ball, and gives better night visibility than the red ball, making it the most suitable for day-night Test cricket. 

Cricket analysts say that as pink is the coming colour in World Cricket, the Lankans do not want to 'miss the bus'. 

Mathivanan said: “At some point, we have to get accustomed to the pink ball, and I don't think there would be big impact if they use that ball for a 'day' game”. 

The customary three-day Club Cricket tournament is scheduled to begin end October, with 14 Premier League Tier ‘A’ teams and 10 Emerging Tier ‘B’ teams in the fray. The preliminary rounds will be of six-weeks duration. 

At the culmination of the three-day tournament, the Club Super-Eight tournament involving the top eight Premier League teams will get under way – this time played with the ‘pink’ ball. 

Unlike the three-day Premier League tournament, the Super-Eight tournament will be played at neutral venues, and in white gear. 

The pink ball has already been tried out in several other venues. 

The West Indies played a Day-Night match between Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago. 

Then in the UAE, Durham played a game against the MCC, while there were other games also played in England, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh. 

India is yet to cut its teeth with the pink ball, with even former Indian great Sachin Tendulkar saying that, converting to the pink ball from the Red Cherry is not a solution for the problems facing Test cricket. 

During the Club championship last year, Tamil Union did creditably well by topping the table in the Premier League Group ‘A’ with 59.415 points, while Galle CC topped League Group ‘B’ with 60.585 points. 

At the Super-Eight stage, Tamil Union, with four wins from eight matches, emerged the ultimate winners, while Moors with three wins were runners up. 

Tamil Union’s Dhananjaya de Silva with 174 points, was adjudged Man-of-the-Tournament, while Tharanga Paranavitana, also of Tamil Union, won the Best Batsman award. 

Lakshan Sandakan, who bagged 52 wickets for the season with his left arm ‘chinaman’, won the Best Bowler of the tournament award.